OBS LEADERSHIP CAMP SUMMARY

Day 1:


We took a ferry from punggol jetty to camp 1 of OBS. that place was amazing.it was completely different than compared to camp 1, which you dont see any technology, civilisation except for pests.



46 of us were grouped into 3 watches. dhanabalan: prefects and 2 npcc(haip luh aka lulu) eng soon: sports group(daniel), ghandi: performing arts and clubs and societies and girl guides, red cross(i think so..haha)(choon)

we were then given this paper to write what we wanted our watch to become:like enthusiastic, optimistic,etc. after that, we were given this paper with a 'girl' figure where we were supposed to write down what types of leaders we want to be.





we were walked to our bunks, settled the administrative stuff, it was belaying and rock climbing time. the belaying technique was still fresh in my mind after the previous OBS. When I saw that we had to climb a rock wall, i was like uh oh. the previous time i did it, i had only gotten a little past the red line. this time, we were given this task to go about doing it blindfolded.



at first, i thought: ohmy, blindfolded, cant see anything. but then again, being blindfolded has its good points, i would not be able to see the ground, so it would calm me down ,i wont be so afraid of heights.being able to get up blindfolded. with encouragement and directions given from friends below, i was happy that i reached the top of the rock wall(10 m).it was certainly an accomplishment.





we have 4 meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper. all which we are not allowed to miss, and we are supposed to arrive as a watch, collect food as a watch, eat as a watch.

that night, i had a terrifying experience.i slept on the lower deck of the double decker bed. i got bitten so many times that my eye and chin was swollen.my hands were bitten terribly too.

that marked my first day at OBS.
Day 2:

MORNING PT..a bad thing to spoil my day.it was so tiring. morning run, games, 5 dunno what. then we had morning circle. blahblah.

we changed into our wet attire and partnered our peaks buddy. DELIA was my buddy.when i received my profile the night before, i was shocked to see that everybody's line was like jagged and mine was almost a straight line.comparing it to last year, last year's was different. it was based on openess, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeatableness, negative emotionality.but the scores wre almost the same too.almost forming a straight line.anyway, back to kayaking, we only went through the basics, wear life vest, capsize, rescue, etc. it was ok.


in the afternoon after lunch, we climbed the inverse tower.it was scary at first when i looked up. but when i was climbing, my mind totally blanked out.haha.ucky i dint have a rip in my pants.me and delia made it up halfway in about 20 to 30 minutes i guess, as we had to end the whole climbing activity.if given more time, i think we as partners, we could have gone up even higher.



for this night, i slept in the main room, with persis, liqin, delia, chrystal.so fun..so many mozzies bites still.

Day 3:

We played a few games today. the first one was called team ski. i was an observer together with kelly for that game.we were the first team to make it back to the starting point after changing to another team.yippees!

while waiting for others to finish their debriefing, we played electric shock?, and learnt a song from hiap luh. we were all carzy over that song after that.haha.

the next game was called team link. we had to step on pieces of puzzles that were spaced out quite far. especially the letters J and K were spaced quite far apart.



Matchstick game was done after we had lunch. i was quite frustrated at certain points of time when the QCs both told me different things.the details passed down from the 'principal' was so cheem at some points.quadrilateral. perpendicular bisector, equal sign, etc.it was a good game. everybody has their own views at looking or observing things.it may look like a letter L to some, it may look like a number 4 to others.it also touched on the importance of communication.

the last game was find a tree. we were all to be blindfolded from our home tree
asked to find our tree with the help of friends.we went very out of range and over shot our tree.:( anyway, something happened halfway to entertain us.haha.



Day 4:

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Expedition day! the sea-ex leaders took charge of the whole day's programme. we had travelled an estimation of 15 km to 16km for 9.5 hours.I think it was better accomplishment than the one in January. We were faced with more difficulties and challenges on the way. We had went through this narrow and shallow path of a mangrove swamp, where Sharmaine and Shermaine got stuck on the shallow part of the swamp. AT the part where we had to go up the mud path and cross the bridge was terrible. I really admire the people who were the first to go up and help transport the kayaks. They had their shoes stuck in the mud and they were all covered in mud throughout. I love my kayaking partner, my buddy, DELIA. Although most of the times we were quiet and silent, we still manage to encourage each other and find things to laugh at to release our stress and to calm us down. I had alot of fun through this kayaking experience, mud balls thrown by instructors were up to some sort fun, but at the expense from being smelly and dirty.





I loved the ending of the whole day, by expressing ourselves by the use of paint. I had actually thought we were supposed to do something related to the kayaking experience. Luckily, it was not. We had loads of fun, some people used their hands, feet, etc.haha.

Back to sleep in the bunk, I was so tired that I fell asleep with my spectacles on while waiting for wanying to pass me her nail clippers.

Day 5:



The last day at OBS. My watch and Eng Soon had woke up late, and were late for PT. We spent most of the morning doing a reflection trail. The stories from the Warrior of Light was really inspirational and made me think about certain things. After that, we spent 1 and a half hour packing and clearing our bunk. It was a slow and upsetting process. I was very sure I was going to miss it terribly. And I was right. Coming back to mainland Singapore is like coming back to reality. Stress, homework, pressure all comes back. I really do think I need something like this OBS camp once in a while, to escape from reality.

Through this camp, I have found out more things about myself. I have learnt to reflect on my daily actions more frequently, think to myself, how can this be improve further, can this be done in a different way. It is a great camp which I will never forget.

OTHER PICS:

Sunday, June 04, 2006;
the end